LOCOWEED DISEASE OF SHEEP 405 



animals have had more loco than they could eat, all at once, and after eight days of ab- 

 stinence from the locoiueed. 



In addition to grazing, this band has eaten about all of the alfalfa this morning. 



Groups VII and VIII. These sheep have improved greatly in the last eight days 

 on their full hay ration. The ewes and yearlings are still the thinnest lot of all, but 

 have improved greatly, being less suffocated, having less bloody mucus from nose, 

 less cough and sneezing, and having gained distinctly in flesh. The animals are still 

 moie stuffed up than those in the other corrals. The lambs, without exception, are 

 bunged up with rhinitis; eyes and face swollen, eyes and nose running, eyes dull, gait 

 stiff and slow, most of them very weak and thin. 



This band after eight days on hay, was turned into a new corral, about 10 a.m. 

 yesterday, after they had stopped feeding on hay. At once all began grazing, eating 

 loco by preference, but also other grasses; ewes and yearlings eating the seed tops, lambs 

 the leaves. After one hour they stopped grazing until evening. Absolutely no effect 

 could be noted in any sheep as the effect of eating the plant. 



This morning not one loco plant can befourid, and in several cases the ewes and year- 

 lings have been seen digging at the root, but apparently tliey have not eaten the plant 

 below the surface of the ground. The corral still contains about one-quarter to one- 

 third of the grasses and other plants. 



The facts of special interest that the experiment afforded up to this 

 time were, that the animals were eating the locoweed, that their general 

 condition was pretty poor, that many of them suffered from cough and rhi- 

 nitis and that some of the animals with cough would pass as locoed animals 

 with more than half the ranchers. The condition was studied, and the diag- 

 nosis was made that the animal was suffering from the sheep fly disease, a 

 diagnosis which was confirmed by autopsy. It was noticed particularly that 

 this disease affected animals in every one of the corrals, those receiving no 

 loco as well as those receiving loco. It was also noticed that the animals 

 receiving the greatest amount of food suffered less severely than animals 

 on insufficient rations; thus the animals receiving four pounds a day of alfalfa 

 and allowed to graze freely on loco stayed in the best condition, the animals 

 receiving four pounds a day of alfalfa alone did almost as well. The animals 

 receiving haff rations of alfaffa either with or without loco were more severely 

 diseased. The animals receiving no alfalfa, but scraping a bare subsistence 

 by grazing on the insufficient forage and loco, were the ones most severely 

 diseased. No difference could be seen in the animals receiving salt and in 

 • those receiving no salt, as far as this disease was concerned. So severe was 

 the outbreak of sheep fly disease, that the experiment was discontinued for 

 eight days, as noted above, and the animals were kept in their corrals and 

 fed abundantly with alfalfa hay. The symptoms promptly abated, and the 

 experiment was resumed. 



It is interesting to note that up to the time of interrupting the experi- 

 ment, certain groups of animals had been receiving an abundance of loco- 



